A U.S. senate committee launched an inquiry on Tuesday to find out ways Facebook select its news stories. The investigation comes in lieu of after a report has surfaced that employees of Facebook stopped the news of conservative issues to appear in its trending list.

As reported in Reuters, The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation requested Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter that he entertains questions in relation to Facebook's curation practices and its accompanying trending topics section.

The investigation on Facebook comes after a Gizmodo made a report on Monday that a former Facebook employee reported workers did not report news accurately on the site, and instead, reported news that is falsely curated.

John Thune, a U.S. senator, claimed that Facebook employees may be in deception of the public if it is reporting false trending news online. Thune said:

"If you have a stated policy, which your followers or your audience knows to be the case, that you use an objective algorithm for trending topics -- you better follow that policy. It's a matter of transparency and honesty and there shouldn't be any attempt to mislead the American public."

The letter sent to Mark Zuckerberg contain requests for information on the organizational structure that feature "Trending Topics" feature. Deputy chief of staff for democratic senator, Harry Reid, Adam Jentleson revealed what was going on behind the investigation surrounding this situation in Facebook. Jentleson said:

Politicians refuse to hold other more important meetings, but instead focuses on Facebook's viral news controversies. These politicians sought to hold meetings over these controversies sourrounding viral news stories that should not be around in Facebook.

Engadget reported that Facebook has until May 24th to make his staff available for any questions in relation to the investigation.

Tags Senate, Facebook, News